Away Fans Views: Portsmouth (A)

You’ve obviously got a lot of financial problems at the minute, something Leeds fans are no strangers to. What kind of effect do you think it has been having on the team?

The lads have stayed strong and all of the players met with the PFA yesterday and decided to tell the club to scrap their January wages, having played for free, whilst the majority will take a pay-cut till the rest of the season and delay their wages until the club come through these muddy and murky waters.

A lot of the players have stayed loyal as well, not getting their heads down, but obviously it is a horrible situation to be in so no-one would blame the players for feeling under the weather.

We last met in October when Leeds were 1-0 winners at Elland Road. Has much changed for Pompey since then?

There have been so many ups and downs. Obviously we’ve had a new manager since we last met – Steve Cotterill finally got the boot and was replaced by Michael Appleton who was rewarded with his first managerial appointment at Pompey. He’s been a breath of fresh air after taking charge of Pompey and is becoming one of us very quickly.

However on a worse note we’ve hit more financial difficulties after our owners, Convers Sports Initiatives, went in to administration, which meant a lot of our expenditure went unpaid and caused us to fall further in debt before going in to administration again. We’ve just had ten points deducted last Friday, and lost our top goalscorer, Erik Huseklepp this morning.

Where are you expecting to finish at the end of the season?

We’ll take 21st or above!

Who should we be looking out for in your side on Saturday?

Well it all depends who is left by Saturday. A number of our players are linked with emergency loan exits to free up our wage bill to help save the club, and the club’s financial troubles have gotten so bad we can’t afford treatment or scans for our injured soliders. However, Liam Lawrence could be on his game on Saturday and is definitely due a goal soon so watch out for our skipper. Also if his extended contract is to go through, Kelvin Etuhu could be dangerous – you may recognise him as the Man City midfielder who got put away in prison for assault – but we signed him on a free transfer in January.

If you could sign any current Leeds player for Pompey, who would it be?

We’d take any of your players at the moment to be honest. We’re in desperate need of players but we can’t afford anyone and we can’t afford to pay anyone. We’ll even take your kit man if he can last 90 minutes?

Finally, what’s your prediction for the game?

Really hoping for a Pompey win obviously, but with our administration troubles, we’re looming in the relegation zone following the points deduction so these points mean more to us than probably Leeds at the moment. Mind you a full attendance is probably a bit more crucial than the points!